From ‘Fair Flora’ to the Fitzherberts

Alex Ledger looks at some of the quirkier aspects of the history of ‘greater Grindleford’.

GRINDLEFORD is a rather rambling settlement, so its boundaries take a little unravelling. It is neither just one village nor even one parish but covers Stoke, Eyam Woodlands and Padley – both Upper and Nether. The manor of Stoke lay within Hope manor, held for the Crown at the time of the Norman conquest. Padley seems to have first been recorded in 1230, ‘Grundelford’ in 1248 and the three-arched Derwent bridge in the 1300s…